Saturday, April 4, 2015

Review: The Quantum Deception (Tanner Zane #2) by Denver Acey

Source: I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Description: What starts out as a
calm night in Salt Lake City turns into chaos when a passenger plane
crashes into the mountains. When reformed cyber hacker Tanner Stone
links the accident to an ingenious Chinese computer virus, it’s up to
him to prevent it from destroying the financial data of everyone in
America! Thrilling, explosive, and packed with twists, this book changes
everything you know about Internet security.

My Review: This is a great thriller because it's very realistic. In fact, that idea alone made it very eerie. I live in the same area where this took place and to see a plane crash not too far from me and see the market crash the way it did would be really scary.

Tanner is back, in the second installment, with a new name, a new job, a new wife, and a new baby on the way. He's working at the NSA and is still as smart as ever, since he's the one who linked the plane crash that killed his co-worker and friend to a very creative computer virus. He was supposed to be on that plane and it becomes a race against time to uncover this plot and stop the virus.

The author does a fantastic job of going back and forth between different parts of the story, bringing them together in a very imaginative way. I was glued to my seat and didn't want to put the book down. Like I said, it's very realistic, but is done is a very original way. I really liked the characters, even the bad guys, and found myself cheering on Tanner and his team to hurry and fix the problem. There are a lot of twists and turns that I didn't see coming, but that really added to the suspense.

From what I understand, there should be at least one more in this series and I'm very excited about that! This can be read as a stand alone, but it makes more sense to have that back story by reading the first book. You can see my review of The Quantum Breach here.

Content: no romance; no language; moderate violence (murders and attempted murders, intense plot situations, kidnappings, etc--nothing is graphic); mild religious elements (it's mentioned the character is LDS, but nothing is preachy). Clean for an older reader.

About the Author:

Few people understand the terrifying, yet realistic threat of
computer hacking like Denver Acey. Denver has spent his entire
professional career in the information technology industry where he has
witnessed and even thwarted actual cybercrime. From his top-secret job
working for the US government to securing computer networks at Fortune
500 companies, Denver is personally familiar with hackers and their
unscrupulous activities.
But over the years, Denver has become increasingly frustrated with
Hollywood’s inaccurate portrayal of cybercrime. Hackers are more
intelligent and more sophisticated than simple teenagers, who guzzle
down Mountain Dew while playing video games. Cybercrime is a
billion-dollar business that encompasses organized crime and foreign
governments. For these elite hackers, the fruits of success are iconic
trademarks, innovative patents, and government secrets.
Because of his unique background, Denver decided to write a book to
dispel hacking myths while highlighting the tenacity of cybercriminals.
Utilizing actual computer hacking concepts and scenarios that he has
experienced firsthand, Denver illustrates — in a simple way for even the
non-techie to understand — how vulnerable we all are to cybercrime.